Virage IT and PowerNet merge after two years of talks

Two Melbourne technology providers, Virage IT and PowerNet IT Solutions, have merged to form a combined managed services and professional services company with 37 years of industry experience.

Founded in 1994, PowerNet provides professional services to a wide range of industries including retail, finance and real estate.

Virage IT, on the other hand, provides managed services mostly to education customers, along with digital agencies and financial institutions. The managed services provider was founded in 2001, but began operating as Virage IT in 2012 after the merger of two MSPs, Pro Integrations and Trinity Digital.

The new company has a headcount of 65, combining PowerNet's 50 staff with Virage IT's 15. The two firms will continue to cover a wide client base and extend their respective services to each other's customers.

From a management perspective, it will be business as usual, said PowerNet director Daniel Williams.

Virage IT managing director Paul MacNeill told CRN the two businesses would continue to operate under their own names for the foreseeable future, as there was a clear delineation between each of their services.

"As a small business, we had to make do with a smaller amount of staff with limited resources as any small business does. What PowerNet brings for us is size and scale along with a complementary business," MacNeill said.

Williams said there was very little overlap between the two companies and that Virage IT and PowerNet would be in a better position to cross-sell managed services and professional services to the combined customer base.

"We'll be looking at different opportunities with great confidence now. Virage has played so well in the education space, and we've done quite a number of projects in education but haven't turned those into managed services agreements."

Williams and MacNeill will sit on the board of the new company, along with PowerNet founder and director Jacob Ohlson and Virage IT general manager Shaun Witherden.

Pictured: Virage IT's Paul MacNeill and PowerNet's Jacob Ohlson.